Deacci Pure Legend “Green Faze” Humbuckers Summary: This is a set of PAF-style ‘buckers with a reverse-wound neck pickup that captures that Peter Green out-of-phase sound. Whether or not they’re true to the original, these are game changers for me! They’re so clear and articulate – even with that “woman” tone in the neck position, I’m like… “Hey baby! Where ya been all my life?” Pros: Absolutely articulate in any pickup position. Neck pickup is warm and deep-textured without losing that top-end bite. Bridge is bright and expressive, and that middle position… OMG! It’s going to give me countless tone-shaping possibilities! Cons: None. Price: $275.00 – $300.00 direct Features:
Tone Bone Rating: 5.0 ~ As I said, this is a game-changer for me. With my Les Pauls, I use either the Treble or the Rhythm pickup; rarely do I use the middle pickup. But the tonal possibilities this particular set of ‘pups offers in the middle position will ensure I’ll be using that position – A LOT. Rex Kroff, the luthier I had install the pickups and do my yearly setup, said the pickups made “Amber” suddenly wake up. To him – and me – the difference in tone between the Burst Buckers and these pickups was like night and day. Where the Burst Buckers sounded a little subdued and “wooly,” the Green Faze pickups made my guitar come to life! |
At the end of May, I got contacted out of the blue by Declan Larkin, founder and builder of Deacci pickups. He asked me if I’d fancy a set of “the best humbuckers ever made.” He’d send me a set to review, and I could do with them as I pleased. I’m used to reviewing gear then eventually returning it after I’m done. As I’ve mentioned in my about page, I don’t like to be beholden to any manufacturer or appear that I’m doing a review because someone comped me some gear. So admittedly, I was a bit wary of this seemingly blind giveaway.
So I started doing a little research on Deacci. I found some forum posts in a couple of UK forums (Deacci is based in Norther Ireland) discussing the pickups, and I found some sound samples. The sound samples turned me on my ear! They sounded absolutely marvelous! Needless to say, I was intrigued. Plus, as an amusing aside, I found that the pickups are in a “Patent Applied For” state, and that Deacci pickups are PAF-style pickups, so PAF-PAF’s. 🙂
But seriously though, Declan also caught me at a good time, as I was considering swapping out the stock pickups in “Amber,” my ’58 Historic Les Paul. I was only using the bridge pickup on her because the neck pickup to me was just not clear enough. Even the neck didn’t have the “bite” that I was wanting. She had a gorgeous clean tone in the neck, but driven, the neck pickup was practically unusable; just way too muffled for my tastes. And having moved from a bluesy to a more straight-up rock sound, I needed brighter pickups.
So I looked at the various models that Declan builds and found that the Green Faze pickups had the slightly lower impedance ratings that I felt would brighten up Amber just right. And it must’ve been kismet because as I was doing my research on Deacci, I was listening to “Oh well, ” so perhaps there was some subliminal stuff going on because I just love that song! In any case, I contacted Declan and asked if it would be okay to evaluate the Green Faze set, as I was sensitive to the fact that his was a brand-new company, and I didn’t want to take advantage. But he said it was all good, and he’d send them over once he’d wind up a new set. Frankly, I was blown away by this, and absolutely humbled. All Declan asked for was a honest review, and if I didn’t like them, I could return them.
Well they’re not going back. They’re staying in my guitar – forever! I’m not saying this because of the freebie, I’m saying this from the root of my heart. The sound my guitar now makes with the Green Faze pickups installed in it moves me practically beyond words.
What’s so special about them? I think a lot of that has to do with how they constructed and especially, how they’re wound. Declan uses a Fibonacci number to determine the number of winds of wire to apply to the pickups. He has also established what he says is a much more efficient and consistent way to hand wind the pickups as well. As far as the Fibonacci stuff is concerned, that could all be just techno-voodoo. But Fibonacci numbers are extremely important because they exist in nature. So applying them to a man-made artifact – at least to me – makes sense as the Fibonacci numbers represent balance.
How They Sound
I’m not going to spend much time singing the pickups’ praises. Suffice it to say that to me, these pickups sound so good, they leave me short of words to describe them. In lieu of that, I recorded several clips. All clips were recorded with my Aracom VRX22 into a custom Aracom 1 X 12 with a Jensen Jet Falcon speaker in it. I also recorded the clips at bedroom level by running my amp into the wonderful Aracom DRX attenuator. Note also that absolutely no EQ was added in production, and I turned off all compression. So what you’ll be hearing, save for the lead break for “The Hit” is the guitar’s natural tone as picked up by my microphone.
Bloom
I played my guitar clean in the shop and was taken by the gorgeous overtones the pickups were producing, so I couldn’t wait to get home to see if I could get that classic Les Paul bloom. For this clip, I played the neck pickup, with the tone control turned all the way down to get that “woman” tone. I’m just picking single notes in an Am pentatonic.
Slow Blues – Fingerpicked – Neck Pickup
Putting the Bloom to Work
The next clip uses the fingerpicked clip above with a simple lead using the woman tone. Oh my…
After recording that, I wanted to see what the guitar would sound like on one of my more engineered songs. This is the lead break from my song “The Hit.” The first half features the “woman” tone, then I switch over to the bridge pickup to finish the solo.
Crunchy Tones
Here I’m playing the same riff for all three positions. The volume knobs are dimed, and my amp is set at the edge of breakup. These pickups through a lot of signal at the front-end of the amp forcing my pre-amp tubes to compress. It’s most evident with the Neck pickup.
Neck
Middle
Bridge
Clean Funk
I just love the fast attack of these pickups. The clean tones are right in your face, but not off-putting at all.
Neck
Middle
Bridge
Clean – Fingerpicked
The overtones that the pickups produce combined with the natural sustain of a solid body Les Paul, make for a rich, complex tone that makes me want squeeze every bit of tonal goodness out of what I’m playing.
Neck
Middle
Bridge
Oh Well…
Of course, I couldn’t do a review of Peter Green-style pickups without doing at least one Peter Green riff. Here’s “Oh well” (at least as close to what my ham-handedness could produce):
Overall Impression
Need I say more? I love these pickups. It’s past midnight and I’ve been writing this review since 8pm. It has been a stop and go affair as I’ve taken breaks to play my guitar. 🙂 I don’t give 5 Tone Bones often. What I do give 5 Tone Bones are game-changers. The Deacci Green Faze pickups are game-changers for me without a doubt!
For more information on Deacci pickups, go to the Deacci site!
Dawg, your clips totally blow me away! I always review pickups based on their clean tones first and the cleans here in your fingerpicked style sound better than similar clips I’ve heard from original PAFs by Gibson from 1959! These are as close to perfection as pickups can get! The middle pup tone has more than magic, it sounds like wizardry. Can’t wait for my set to arrive. Thank you, bro, for giving us such a detailed background on these incredible pickups!!!
Absolutely my pleasure! When I first plugged the guitar in at my luthier’s shop, both he and I noted that this is what a Les Paul should sound like. Even clean, there’s a noticeable “bite” to the sound as the pickups pick up those super high-end frequencies, but it’s not so much that it’s off-putting. Especially in the treble position, you get that Les Paul “honk.” This is what I felt was missing with the stock Burst Buckers. The guitar sounded much to smooth with those. These pickups are fantastic at bringing out that Les Paul character!
Can’t wait til mine arrive!
Didn’t you say you’re getting the Zero’s? I really liked those from the clips as well.
Dawg, how does the bridge pickup sound with a lot of distortion?
In a word, the bridge pickup sounds “scary.” Not as in dark or sinister, but “scary” good. Unlike other vintage pickups that are extremely bright when cranked, the Deacci’s retain the bottom end, so what you get is a much richer sound than you’d expect. Even the luthier that did the install commented that he was amazed at the bottom-end retention of the bridge pickup. You can hear for yourself in the lead break clip for the “The Hit” I did above. Even though there’s a bit of delay and reverb added, when I make the switch to the bridge pickup, the tone is much brighter, BUT it’s still super-rich.
One your Clean Fingerpicked samples, the bridge pickup sounds more delicate, transparent and shimmery than the best PAFs do on their neck setting! These are legendary!!!
Dawg, I keep replaying your clean fingerprinted sample clip over and over. That’s one delicate, gorgeous melody and I’ve never heard the tonalities I always knew the Les Paul was capable of rendering expressed so well. These pickups and that riff are wonderful. Why don’t you do an album of instrumental pieces like this? I’d be your first customer.
Thanks, man! Here’s something I quickly threw together this morning. I wanted to track it before I left for work. Still needs some compositional work. https://guitargear.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/the-struggle-by-goofydawg.mp3
OK, never ever heard such open, atmospheric tone in my life!!! What effects, if any, did you have on this recording? Fabulous! And my Deacci’s just arrived. Jazzed beyond words!
Thanks! All the effects are Logic Plugins. For the guitars, I used a Silver Compressor and reverb and stereo delay. For the rhythm part, I used the middle position on the guitar, and for the “lead” used the neck position with the tone number down to about 5. I also increased the wet/dry mix on the lead to give it more ambience. Then to emphasize the ambience, I added a warm pad. That really helped get that atmospheric effect.
Yes, the Zeros. Can’t wait to try them!
[…] You can read the full review and hear how they sound on the GuitarGear website at guitargear.org. […]
I’ve had a set of Declan’s humbuckers in my Edwards Les Paul for a few years now & love them – they wiped the floor with the stock Duncans which came with the guitar. I helped Declan with the soundclips for the Pure Vintage sets.
Great to see others beginning to benefit from the tonal improvements these great pickups add to their guitars!
I ended up selecting the Pure Vintage Twos for my 96 Gibson Les Paul and don’t think I’d trade them for a set of original PAFs at this point. They nail the sound I’ve heard on so many recordings from the 1950s and 60s. Les Paul organic woodiness with plenty of clarity and crunch. I love mine!!!
Even though I haven’t had time to record in a couple of months, I’m still blown away by the sound of these pickups. It’s a totally different guitar than the one I bought a few years ago; and to think that was considering selling or trading it. Not a chance.
I went for a really early (back when they were RD Pickups!) set of 1’s and haven’t looked back – bright, articulate & fat all at the same time. Had a set of zero’s in another semi (yam sa700) & the almost single coil chime from those ones is devine too 😉